第27章
《空军战士——驾驶B-24轰炸机的男孩们》章节:第27章,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
他们都需要把他们联结在一起的归属感。无论是在地面, 还是在空中, 他们共同拥有这种归属感。无论飞行员年纪多大, 执行过多少次任务, 机组成员都尊重他、信任他, 按他说的话去做。同样地, 上述那个飞行员让他的机组成员跳伞, 而自己一个人降落飞机。尽管那是他的第一次战斗任务。
在欧战胜利50周年纪念日, 我和乔( 约瑟夫) ·赫勒在一起, 他是第十二航空队的一名投弹手, 《第22条军规》的作者。赫勒告诉我: “我从来没遇到一位坏军官。”惊讶之余, 我问: “乔, 你创作了梅杰·梅杰少校、卡斯卡特上校、德里德尔将军、蒙德兵德少尉, 以及其他一些不好的军官形象。世界上的人都知道他们,你怎么能说你从来没有遇到过坏军官? ”
“他们都是虚构的, ”他回答说, “从我参军, 到去意大利, 到执行飞行任务,到退伍,我遇到的每一个军官都很好。”在为写作这本书采访麦高文的过程中, 我告诉他赫勒的话。麦高文表示同意。“这是我的经验, ”麦高文说, “我对飞行员、投弹手、导航员, 以及大队的执行官、大队长, 都有深刻印象。我觉得他们是一群优秀的人, 而且老实说, 我想不起任何一个不好的军官。在战斗中, 我确定我们的军官知道该怎么做才是最好的———如果他们犯错, 也不是愚蠢的错误。我们的军官很棒。”
显然, 二战中的美军中有一些虚弱、贫乏、无效率或者马马虎虎的军官, 有一些绝对糟糕的军官。但这样的人一到战斗岗位, 陆军航空队、陆军、海军或者海军陆战队就会把他们淘汰, 立刻。毕竟, 人命掌握在他们手中。战斗官员明白这一点,并以此为出发点行动。问问和他们敌对的德国人,就知道他们有多么好。或者去问问日本人也一样。
美国军官很棒。而以上讲述的, 就是驻在意大利切里尼奥拉的第455 轰炸大队741 中队中的例子。［奇书网·电子书下载乐园—Ｗww.Ｑisuu.Ｃom］
Learning to Fly in Combat
...from The Wild Blue (Chapter 6) by Stephen E. Ambrose
Learning to Fly in Combat
The AAF policy in the Fall of 1944 was to have the pilots fly theirfirst five combat missions as co-pilots with a veteran and an experiencedcrew. McGovern was, in his words, "lucky," because his pilot was CaptainHoward Surbeck of Washington state. He was older, twenty-four-years-oldto McGovern ’s twenty-two, "and he had circles under his eyes and he wasobviously feeling the strain of combat." He had flown 25 missions when McGovernflew with him. It was his tent that Rounds, with McGovern on board, hadtorn in half with his jeep, but Surbeck never mentioned it to McGovern.
Surbeck let McGovern do quite a bit of the flying from his co-pilot’s seat, sometimes half the mission. The experience taught McGovern "moreabout what it ’s like to have all that gear on and to go to 25,000 feetin sub-zero temperatures and stay in formation and get shot at and all theother things that go with combat missions." Surbeck "brought me along."
McGovern’s first mission was November 11, 1944 — Armistice Day. Thenight before he checked and saw his name on the assignment sheet. The morningbegan for him when the operations sergeant came into his tent at 4:00 A.M.to wake him. On his first five missions, Rounds and Adams could stay inthe sack, as they were not going. McGovern went to the mess hall for a powderedegg breakfast. Then he climbed into a truck for the drive to the group’s operations room for the briefing. At the door, an MP examined his identificationand checked his name on the assignment sheet, then opened the door so McGovernand those from his truck could enter.
Inside, the 300 or so crew sat on planks placed over cinder blocks.When a staff officer announced that they were all present and accountedfor, the door was locked. The Group commander by the Fall of 1944 was Col.William Snowden. He was in his mid-forties, a "grandfather" figure to thepilots and crews. He had gray hair but a commanding presence. McGovern saidhe had "the total confidence of everyone in our group. A good man and agood leader. Just the way he moved around, he was reassuring without beingcondescending."
When Colonel Snowden strode in, everyone stood at attention. Snowdenclimbed onto
the platform, put the men at ease, and after saying good morning motionedto a member of his staff to pull a draw string. Behind the curtain was alarge map of southern and central Europe. The pilots and crew members sawtheir route and the target drawn on the map with erasable marks. When itwas Vienna, or Munich, or any other target known to be well defended byantiaircraft guns, or if it was four or more hours flying time from Cerignola,a dismal groan slowly became audible, but on this occasion there were murmursof approval because the target was Linz, Austria, not so terribly far away,without any known antiaircraft batteries to fly over, and not so well protecteditself. It could be what the men called a "milk run." Later in the war Linzwould become one of the most heavily defended targets in Europe.
Colonel Snowden got the men to quiet down and gave way to the weatherofficer, who described what the cloud cover and winds were likely to belike over Linz.. Then he went over conditions on the route and what to expecton the way home and what it would be like over Cerignola when they got back.Next the operations officer described the nature of the marshaling yardsthey were going after and explained that the mission was important becausethe Germans were moving men and materiel through Linz on their way to theItalian front. He warned the pilots and bombardiers to make every possibleeffort to avoid hitting the cultural sites and educational buildings. Bythis stage of the war, the bombardiers in the squadron would toggle theirswitches when they saw the lead plane, with the best navigator and bombardier,drop its bombs.
Next the men were told who would be the pilot of the lead plane. Hewas always a good pilot. Sometimes he was a major, but often Colonel Snowdenwould lead the missions — when that happened, the men would again mummertheir approval. The briefing would conclude with the group chaplain leadingthem in a prayer.
Dismissal came from Snowden, but only after he had the men "hack" theirwatches. They would pull the stems of their watches when the second handreached 12. Snowden would have them set the minute and hour hands to correspondto his, then count to ten and call "hack," and they would push the stemsback in. They filed out of the briefing room, to go to another briefing— one for pilots and co-pilots, another for radio operators, another fornavigators and bombardiers, still another for gunners.
The men climbed into trucks for the ride to the storage sheds just offthe runway where their flying equipment and parachutes were located. Eachcrew got out and dressed for the mission. They were going up to 20,000 feetor even higher and it was going to be cold up there, between 20 and 50 degreesbelow zero Fahrenheit. McGovern and the others pulled on heavy winter underwear.Next they put on long wool socks and a wool military uniform, slacks andshirts -- olive drab. Then a leather jacket and leather trousers, both linedwith sheepskin, then sheepskin-lined heavy boots. Big, heavy silk-linedleather gloves followed. The sheepskin-lined helmet came down over the ears.Surbeck and McGovern wore Colt .45 pistols in a shoulder holster, then puton backpacks containing their parachutes. The other crew members pickedup their parachutes in chest packs, which they carried into the plane byhand. They could snap them on if needed. The parachute packers made theirstandard joke when giving them out, "If it doesn’t work, bring it backand I ’ll give you another."
Dressed, they walked to their plane on its hard stand. Surbeck, accompaniedby the chief of the ground crew, walked around the B-24, checking it outvisually. The navigator, bombardier, radioman, and gunners would check outtheir equipment.
Later, when the plane had gotten up to 10,000 feet, the pilots and crewput on their oxygen masks. It covered the nose. They plugged electric cordsfrom their electrically heated flight suits into an outlet on the plane— the four engines created the power for the electricity. They could adjustthe heat, turning it down a little or up a bit as needed. Below 15,000 feetthe crew took off their oxygen masks. Surbeck and McGovern kept theirs onuntil they were down to 10,000 feet. At that altitude, all the smokers littheir cigarettes. The smoke was so thick it looked like there was a fire.
The bombs had been loaded during the night into the bomb bay by theground crew led by an ordnance officer. They assembled the bombs by takingthe stabilizing fins, stored in a separate box, and screwing them on thebombs. Using winches and tractors, the ground crews had hoisted the unwieldy,blunt-nosed 500 pound bombs into their racks. They were inserted into theB-24's womb in a horizontal position and attached to the metal racks. Theyhad a cardboard tag between the bomb and the nose fuse, and at the backend a wire-arming pin. The tail gunner would crawl out on the cat walk overthe bomb bay door to pull the tag and then the pin.
Climbing into the B-24 with those big heavy boots and the layers ofclothes was always cumbersome, as the men waddled ponderously. They carriedflak jackets, mandatory since Ploesti. The crew members had difficulty gettingthemselves into and adjusted in their cramped positions, especially thenose turret and the tail gunner. The belly turret gunner waited until theywere in the air before squeezing — with the help of the waist gunner— into his bubble. Surbeck and McGovern settled into their seats, withtheir parachutes serving as a sort-of back rest. The seats were encasedin cast iron. The iron came up to the knees, then under the seat and upthe back. It was there in the event that flak hit the plane on the bottomside so that, in McGovern ’s words, "the pilot and co-pilot would havesome chance of survival because somebody has to fly the airplane. It wasn’t that they were worth more than anybody else on the crew, but if bothgot killed or badly injured, that plane is going to go down."
The moment Surbeck got into the plane, went to his seat, and put onhis earphones and mike — attached to his helmet — he was, in McGovern’s words, "totally in command, of the officers and sergeants." McGovernalready knew that, but watching Captain Surbeck go through his routine reinforcedthe point. McGovern explained, "It had to be that way because the pilotwas the only one with his hands on the controls that determined where theplane was going to go and how it was going to be flown." Of course he hadhelp, especially from the navigator and bombardier, the radio operator andthe flight engineers, "but the request for their help came from Surbeck."It was his job to check on the crew, frequently. He needed to make surethat nobody ’s oxygen hose had come unhooked; if a tail gunner or someoneelse failed to answer when the pilot called to him on the intercom, he mightwell have passed out from a lack of oxygen or frozen because his electricplug had come out, without ever noticing that his hose or wire was unhooked.These and other things Surbeck did as a matter of routine, McGovern noted.
To get the engines started, Surbeck would signal to the flight engineer,who would start the single-cylinder gasoline-powered unit on the B-24. Itwas called the "putt-putt" and gave a boost to the batteries. Engine numberthree, the one nearest McGovern, started first. It powered the generatorswhich helped start the other engines. When all were operating, Surbeck dida "run up," checking on each engine ’s performance, magnetos, temperatureand pressure checks of fuel, oil and hydraulic systems. When a flare wentup planes began to move out of their hard stands over the taxiway and ontothe runway, looking like elephants getting ready for a circus parade. Surbeckcalled out the final checklist to McGovern:
"Booster pumps" — "On"
"Mixture" — "Auto rich"
"Props" — "Full high"
"Superchargers" — "Set"
"Half flaps" — "Set"
and so on.
Surbeck lined his plane up on the taxi strip, behind some planes andahead of others — there were 28 in the group, seven in each squadron. The454th Bomb Group was on the other side of the runway, parallel to the 455th,so that the planes from each group could take off side by side. Settingthe brakes, Surbeck pushed the throttle to get the engines running at maximum.When his turn to take off arrived, the roar was almost deafening. The planevibrated as every nut and bolt, every rivet and tube rattled and shook.
Twenty or at most thirty seconds after the plane ahead of him beganto roll down the runway, Surbeck released the brakes. A modern air trafficcontroller, or a pilot of a commercial airliner, would be appalled at thesight, but for the bomber pilots of World War II that was how close to eachother they were. Down the strip Surbeck started rolling, picking up speeduntil he reached 160 mph. He had his flaps set at 20 degrees, brought theengines to maximum power, and at the end of the runway he pulled the noseoff the ground and became airborne. With the bomb load, the full tanks offuel, the weight of the crew and their equipment, including the .50 calibermachine guns and ammunition for them, Surbeck had to fight to gain altitude.It seemed to McGovern that he would not get the plane above tree-top altitude,but he did. Barely, but he did. Once the plane was in the air, even if onlyjust, McGovern as co-pilot had the task of raising the landing gear andbringing up the flaps.
Surbeck circled, as did all the other pilots, their planes looking ratherlike hawks over a marsh. And he climbed. The gunners tested their guns.They were Browning M-2 .50 caliber machine guns. Each gun had about 150working parts and the men had been required to strip and reassemble it blindfoldedwearing gloves. The guns weighed sixty-four pounds and fired 800 roundsof ammunition per minute at a range of 600 yards. Sgt. Louie Hansen, a tailgunner in the 743rd Squadron, once discovered that both his guns were jammed— the cocking levers had been put in backward after the guns had been cleanedfrom the previous mission. He described what he did. "There was only spacein the turret to get one hand through to a gun. I did one with my righthand, the other with my left. Sweat started to trickle down my back, mygoggles steamed over which made no difference as there was no way to seewhat I was doing. The intense cold made me afraid to remove my gloves. ButI got the job done and, as most combat crew members know, one can sweatat 50 degrees below." Fortunately for Surbeck and McGovern, the guns ontheir Liberator tested okay.
After an hour or so, Surbeck’s plane had become a part of the formation.It was a squadron box of seven aircraft. There were two three-plane echelons.The lead plane had a wingman just behind and on either side. Surbeck wasone of those on the wing of the leader. The second echelon was forty feetbelow and forty feet back of the lead echelon. The seventh aircraft, knownas "Tail End Charlie," was behind the second echelon. Flying the wing, evenfor Surbeck, was more difficult than being in the lead, but easier thanflying Tail End Charlie. As the last plane in the squadron, Tail End Charliewas the most vulnerable if German fighters attacked, and it was the hardestposition to hold. Usually new pilots and crews got that assignment. On thewing, Surbeck wanted to stay close to the plane he was flying on so as tomake as small and infrequent power changes as possible, to save the enginesand save fuel. Pilot Lt. John Smith, said that "in due course flying formationbecame a reflex like driving a car." The group consisted of four squadrons,the lead box, the high box, the low box and the middle box.
More climbing, to 20,000 and eventually 25,000 feet over the Adriatic.Then off for the target. When the group got to the initial point it turned.But clouds had moved in over Linz and the lead pilot decided to abort. Heturned, so did the others, and returned to base, still fully loaded withthe bombs.
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McGovern’s first mission went better than that of Lt. David Gandin,a navigator in a B-24. In his war diary, Gandin reported that when his Liberator,called the Snafu, was over the target a piece of flak came through the cockpitwindow. The pilot, Lt. Bill Marsh, lost the top of his head. The co-pilot,Lt. Hilary Bevins, was on his first mission. He called to his radio man,who came to the cockpit wearing a walkaround oxygen bottle "and removedMarsh from the pilot’s seat. Bevins couldn ’t stand it with Marsh in theseat and all the blood flowing around.
"Bevins moved over to the pilot ’s seat and kept in the formation untilit headed off.
All the compasses were out, so Bevins flew the opposite direction ofthe setting sun. All the men were freezing because of the hole in the topof the cockpit. The engineer was sick to his stomach from all the blood.Bevins’ eyeball was scratched and Marsh’s blood was frozen on his hands."
When darkness descended, Blevin ’s flew opposite the North Star. FinallySnafu got back to base — but Bevins had never made a night landing before."As he came in, he banked too far to the left and knocked off the left landinggear, bounced over and did the same to the right one; the ship crash-landedand caught on fire.
"Thank God all got out okay, though Bevins wouldn ’t leave till theytook Marsh’s body out also. The plane burned to a crisp."
Learning to Fly in Combat（2）
On November 17, McGovern flew his second mission as Surbeck ’s co-pilot.The
target was marshaling yards in Gyor, Hungary. Over the target the flakbegan. It was heavy and accurate. Sticking tight to the formation, his planeand the others could achieve a better bomb pattern but it also made a concentratedtarget for the flak gunners. "It was just solid black except for flashesof red where shells were exploding," McGovern remembered. The Germans wereusing a box-type defense. Each of the 88s fired into an area as the bombersapproached, the shells traveling faster than the speed of sound and setto explode at the group ’s altitude. "They just boxed it." The boxes were2,000 feet deep and 2,000 feet wide, sometimes more. The German antiaircraftunits employed almost a million personnel and operated over 50,000 guns,most of them the dreaded 88s. The shells were time-fused to explode at 20,000feet, or above or below that altitude according to the flight pattern. Asthe shells exploded, sending out hundreds of pieces of steel shrapnel thathad a killing zone radius of some thirty feet, the bombers flew into them."Well they had filled that box," McGovern said. A standard expression fromSurbeck or crew members was that "the flak was so thick you could walk onit." McGovern "often wondered if that ’s the way hell looks."
Another pilot, Lt. Robert Reichard, recalled that "the barrage was sointense that the daylight disappeared and it was as if someone had cut outthe sun." The B-24's had nowhere to hide and with the ground 25,000 feetbelow, there was no place to dig in. The bursts around them posed a threatto the airplane, as it had ten 500 pound bombs and over 2,000 gallons of100 octane gas on board.
When the bombs dropped the plane jumped a few feet. "Everything improvedwhen they went away," Lt. Vincent Fagan remembered. "The plane was 5,000or 6,000 pounds lighter, we were leaving the flak instead of going intoit and we could take evasive action — usually a diving turn towards theshortest escape route from the flak area."
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One didn’t always get out of the flak. On his first mission, October7, 1944, B-24 pilot J.I. Merritt, in Liberty Belle, flew over Vienna tohit an oil refinery. After dropping the bombs, he banked steeply to theleft and headed toward the rally point and home. Sgt. Art Johnson, a waistgunner and assistant engineer, was on his twenty-sixth mission. He recalled,"We had flown through the worst of the flak. I sighed a bit, for this wasmy third time in the vicinity of Vienna and I knew about where the flakbegan and ended." Just then, there were four explosions in quick succession.
Johnson ’s oxygen hose pulled apart, his gun was knocked out of hishand, and he hit the floor, hard. Luckily his headset stayed connec